Campout Cancellations

[local1400]

It is just sad that these boys will never earn camping merit badge (Eagle?!?!) or even be elected to OA-unless they get priorities straight!

[John-in-KC]

FScouter,

 

EagleSon saw us divorce in his Web 1 year. She did not want him in Boy Scouting. I did. He earned his Eagle in spite of her. Even so, divorce decrees and parenting plans are, sadly, contractual in nature. A divorced parent has the right to fall on his/her sword and demand a child not go on a trip.

 

I didn't say it was right. I didn't say it can't be fought using the "best interests of the child" argument. I say it happens.

 

Kids from broken homes want, desperately, the love of both their parents. They'll go very very far to keep that love flowing, even bailing out on a camp. Unhealthy? Certainly. Blame the kid for the failings of the parent?? NWIH.

 

What can we as Scouters do? Show them unconditional love, and help them get access to the full toolbox of Scouting... in part by helping them get the discouraging parent to understand.

 

I hope all can understand I feel quite strongly on this issue.

 

YIS

[Gold Winger]

" A divorced parent has the right to fall on his/her sword and demand a child not go on a trip."

 

Oh, I've seen that more times than I care to think about. "Can we switch weekends because Johnny wants to go on the father-son campout?" "Not only NO but Hell NO, this is my weekend and you can't have it." "Do you have something planned?" "No, we're just going to hang out."

 

Divorce is all too often an adversarial relationship and one or both parents use the kids as pawns to hurt the other. The problem is that it usually backfires. Mom wants her weekend to keep dad from doing something special so does Johnny blame dad? Nope, he hates mom all the more.

 

 

[FScouter]

So what do any of these various other events have to do with cancelling out in the parking lot of the departure point? "A Scout is Courteous" doesn't apply if the parents have a court-ordered visitation schedule, or Grammy is coming in from Italy? It is a rude, self-centered and discourteous CHOICE if a Scout waits until the last minute to declare he's backing out.

[John-in-KC]

FScouter,

 

Sounds to me like a great reason for a non-advancement Scoutmaster Conference ... to talk about Courtesy.

 

Also sounds like justification for several Scoutmaster Minutes.

[1Vigil]

I agree with the Scoutmasters Minutes. If the boys don`t get the issue by the next campout. Then it would be a great time to have it brought up at the scoutmaster conference. Even the boys board of review. The boy must show scout spirit and do his part or don`t advance to the next rank. If these ideas don`t work. Then I would have a parent/scout talk. Face to face with the problem at hand. The problem will only grow and spread to the rest of the troop.

[Eamonn]

Back when the world was young, I used to count my chickens before they were hatched!!

The announcement would be made about the fun filled, action packed, adventurous weekend that was coming up.

A stir of excitement would fill the meeting hall.

The SPL would ask how many of you think you are going? A sea of hands would be raised up.

The members of the PLC, stuck out their chests full of pride on having come up with such a wonderful idea.

God was in his heaven and all was right with the world.

Sadly sometimes before the meeting hall was cleared some of those who only minutes before had raised their hand, were starting to have second thoughts and were saying that they weren't sure.

I think that a lot of Scouts do caught up in the excitement of the moment.

Organizing and selling an event does involve real leadership skills.

Planning:

Long before the event is announced it needs to be looked at. The questions "Is this something we want to do?" And "Why are we doing this?" need to be asked.

Dates need to be checked and if there are conflicts these need to be looked at. Some might be a big deal, some might only involve and effect only one or two Scouts.

Sometimes the PLC feels that they have to do something that they have done before, even if it it isn't such a great idea! At times this falls under the "We always do it" and sometimes they are just a lazy parliament of toads and doing something that has been done before is the easy way out.

A lot of times I have found that the events we have the worst turn out for are the events I have tried to push through! Events that I thought they needed. They however don't feel that they have any "Ownership" in the event.

Communication./ Marketing.

Everyone needs to know the: What, Where, When, How much?

They also need to know "What's in it for me?"

Different units communicate differently. With the Ship I found that e-mails are a waste of time.

The early communications are one way and require little or no feed back, closer to the event these communications need to be two way communications. In the Ship the Quarterdeck has ruled that we need the cash and permission forms in at least ten days ahead of Ship's events. Some other events have requirements that need money and forms in a lot sooner. Our Winter Training Weekend in January requires the forms and cash in by mid. October.

How we sell an event or market it does make a big difference. Most times if the ideas and the planning has been done by the youth members this is not a big deal.

Deadlines:

The Quarterdeck does set deadlines for when forms and payment is required. We also have minimum numbers that are needed for an event to take place. If not enough people sign up we cancel the event. Last minute sign-ups are accepted if the Boatswain or the person in charge of the even is OK with it and it doesn't mean adding extra vehicles.

Depending on what has been spent and how full the vehicles are, the QD is in charge of refunds. Most times they ask that Scout who decides that he or she isn't going to come up with a replacement or he will lose his money.

Evaluations:

After the event the QD looks at what worked and what didn't.

What can be improved? Do we ever want to do this again?

We use a rating system of 1 - 10 and this is recorded in the Ships log.

The youth in the Ship are not good at knowing what they are doing. Sometimes because they get hit at the last minute with something from school or from another organization. Sometimes they like to wait to see if they are going to get a better offer!

We canceled the trip last summer because not enough Scouts paid the deposits needed by the date set.

I was unwilling to give up nine days vacation, drive 1,200 miles bring a female leader with us for only five Scouts.

Of course I did feel bad for the five that didn't get to go, but they seen the thinking behind it and agreed with me.

Some of the other Scouts did over the summer mention that they wished that they had signed up and had nothing to do!!

The QD did plan at the last minute a weekend trip on the water.

Eamonn.